title: Priming in the brain, an immunologically privileged organ, elicits anti-tumor immunity.
abstract: A crucial question in the study of tumor neuro-immunology concerns the capacity of the central nervous system to initiate and execute an immune response. In a 100% fatal rat malignant glioma model, genetically modified tumors secreting INF-gamma intracerebrally generate an immune response resulting in a substantial increase in survival time, tumor rejection and specific systemic immunity. Tumors modified to secrete IL-2 alone do not change the biologic behavior of transfected gliomas. INF-gamma induces elevated expression of major-histocompatibility-complex-class-I and -class-II molecules in microglia throughout the brain and invokes enhanced tumor infiltration by CD4, CD8 and NK cells. These findings demonstrate successful immunization against a central-nervous-system tumor by direct priming in the brain with a live growth-competent tumor vaccine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 75235-9036, USA. fathalla@utsw.swmed.edu
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Fathallah-Shaykh
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Herrera
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D005910:Glioma / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000502:physiology*; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000502:physiology*; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D007376:Interleukin-2; D007371:Interferon-gamma